Thrive Beyond Size

Friends, welcome to Episode 175 of Thrive Beyond Size. Can you believe it’s the 175th episode? That means I’ve done this podcast for 175 weeks in a row without missing a single week. I’m really proud of this accomplishment because I think it’s the longest commitment I’ve ever made. When I started the podcast I was so nervous. I was terrified, actually. I did everything anyone told me to make it perfect. But as I recorded more my mindset changed so I was able to aim for B+ instead of perfection and it made everything easier. That ability to change your mindset to make something easier is what I want to talk about today. There are four key personality traits that tend to make relationships with food, among other things, more challenging for us. But good news! Mindsets can change.    

The four key personality traits often standing in our way are perfectionism, the all or nothing thinking, people pleasing, and neglecting our own self-care. The most common is perfectionism. I identify as a perfectionist and even though it sounds like a positive it comes with rigid expectations that don’t allow us flexibility. All or nothing thinking often goes hand-in-hand with perfectionism. Either we’re really good or we’ve blown it entirely and we just give up. We’ve already had a piece of cake so we just eat whatever we want all weekend. People pleasing is that desire to please others and with food this might mean eating what everyone else is eating at a party or saying yes to dessert so you don’t offend the host. And neglecting our own self-care often comes with juggling a lot of responsibilities. It’s just easier to push our needs to the bottom of the list. If any of these sound like you, this episode is for you. I’ll get in-depth on all four and talk about how to shift your mindset to alter these patterns of behavior for the better.

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome back, beautiful friends, to the podcast. Last week we talked about how it’s not your fault, your body is not broken, and you are not broken. Today is a bit related to that because I want to talk about food control. That constant food chatter in our minds, a constant obsession about food, feeling like we have to control food but also feeling out of control, that’s what I want to talk about because when I do, I often get the response of “I don’t actually food restrict, I haven’t been on a diet in forever and this doesn’t apply to me”. But here’s the thing: I think because so many of us are used to the messages we receive day in and day out from diet culture, we’re just used to a baseline of eating much less than we used to. We don’t actually think we’re restricting but we’re constantly feeding ourselves fewer calories than what our bodies need to function well. And that’s what I am going to address here today.    

It’s important to talk about how many of us feel like we’re no longer dieting but we have this baseline of not eating enough and we’re still caught in a cycle of food obsession, guilt, and even bingeing. Why is that happening if we’re not restricting? Let’s talk about how calorie restriction and nutrient deprivation affect our bodies and brains and how they sneak into our lives when we’re not looking. It’s a subtle restriction, like choosing a smaller portion than we need or not eating when we’re hungry between meals. I’m going to talk all about things like energy conservation mode and how our hypothalamus monitors energy intake and expenditure, macronutrients and micronutrients, the body’s built-in mechanism called homeostasis, the subtle signs we’re still restricting without knowing it, and what to do about it. It’s okay if this is you. You’re not broken. We’ve all been there and being aware is the first step towards healing. So join me on this exploration of exactly how food restriction is hiding in plain sight keeping us from a fully healthy relationship with food, and how to move forward. 

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello friends, welcome to another episode of Thrive Beyond Size. I’ve been going through a real transition period this Fall and it’s prompted me to continually remind myself “You’re not broken”. All the changes from dropping half my shifts at work to spend more time with my husband and clients and shifting my priorities on how I spend my time, all of the things I’m working on have made me more in tune with my body. But it’s also caused me to freak out sometimes. And when the stress freak-out happens, my relationship with my body tanks and I blame it for everything wrong. So I keep saying “You are not broken”. And that’s what we’re talking about today: that you are not broken.    

If you have ever struggled with your relationship with food or your body, it’s not your fault. You are not broken. Your body is not broken. But I want to explore deeper and explain the biology of what happens when food restriction occurs. I want to talk about why the solution isn’t more restriction. I’m going to talk about how we were hard-wired to eat and how we eat now, what fasting does, why hunger ramps up, and how cravings work. We’re going to get into it all so that we can understand exactly what’s going on biologically when we’re stressed out and our bodies are stressed out. The pressures that lead us to binges aren’t a sign of us being broken. There are ways we can alter the biology, ways to reconnect with our bodies, and we’ll talk about those. But most importantly we will say, together, “You are not broken”. 

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode, I dive deep into the erasure of fat people from the fashion industry. It’s an issue that many of us are familiar with—big sizes are often only available online, and store options are shrinking. And why is this an issue? Because it’s a reflection of a much bigger problem: the erasure of fat bodies in society.

We’re breaking down the history of plus-size fashion and how the recent disappearance of extended sizes reflects fatphobia, diet culture, and the fashion industry that prioritizes thinness. From the rise of body positivity in the 2010s to the slow erasure of plus-size sections in major retailers, we’ll explore what this means for real people and why it’s so much more than a clothing issue. We’ll also talk about how fashion intersects with health and wellness and why we need to hold these brands accountable for excluding fat people from their stores. Fashion is for everyone, and it's time for the industry to reflect that.

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Ever feel like you’re drowning in obligations and losing sight of yourself in the process? In this episode of Thrive Beyond Size, we’re getting real about boundaries: why they matter and how they can completely transform the way you protect your time, energy, and emotional well-being. Whether you’re constantly saying yes to things you don’t have the capacity for or you’re tired of unsolicited comments about your body, setting clear boundaries is the ultimate form of self-care.

I share my own recent struggles with honouring my energy and time and why I believe boundaries are an act of self-care, not selfishness. We’ll talk about how to reclaim your space, push back against the pressure to always say yes, and confidently handle those oh-so-annoying body comments. If you’re ready to protect your peace, set some limits, and prioritize what truly matters to you, this episode will give you the tools (and the permission!) to do just that. Let's get into it.

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

--

Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey friends, welcome back to Thrive Beyond Size! Today, we’re pulling back the curtain on a hot topic: intuitive eating. With so many programs jumping on the bandwagon, it's time we sift through the confusion and uncover what true intuitive eating is all about and how to spot when diet culture is sneaking in to steal the show. So, we’re going to break it down together and talk about what real intuitive eating is and how to spot when it’s being co-opted by diet culture.

Intuitive eating is about learning to trust your body’s signals, practicing self-compassion, and letting go of the idea that your worth is tied to your weight. But when intuitive eating gets mixed with diet culture, it can lead you right back into the same cycle of restriction and shame that you’re trying to break free from.

I’ll guide you through 10 signs to help identify when claims of "intuitive eating" may not be the real deal. If you see weight loss as the primary goal, labels of “good” and “bad” foods, or any strict rules about when or what you can eat, it’s not true intuitive eating. We’re talking about tuning into your body’s needs, enjoying food without guilt, and reconnecting with your body in a freeing but not restrictive way. By the end of this episode, you’ll have the tools to spot when something’s not quite right and confidently stay true to the empowering principles of intuitive eating!

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello friends, and welcome back to the podcast! I’m going to start with a question so obvious that it sounds laughable: how do you know when you have to pee? That sounds wild, right? But can you feel your heart beating? Not your pulse with your fingers, but just the beating of your heart inside you? How can you tell if you’re hungry? Or full? There is an answer to these questions and it’s a topic called interoception. Interoception is your body’s ability to sense its internal states. Hunger, thirst, pain and even needing to take a deep breath. That’s interoception. It’s your body’s way of communicating needs to your brain. And it’s a key component of intuitive eating which is why I’m going to talk all about it today.     

When you are better in tune with your internal signals, you are better able to practice intuitive eating. But we live in a culture that encourages us to ignore our body signals in favour of relying on external rules to guide our eating. Things like the “right time” of day to eat, not snacking between meals, and finishing everything on our plates even if we’re full, are all rigid rules we put in place to control our bodies and they effectively make us a lot less aware of our interoception cues than we should be. How can we develop our internal awareness again? How can we learn to step outside of the rules we’ve arbitrarily laid out so we can tune into our own bodies? That’s what I want to talk about. Being aware of interoception is a skill that 100% can be developed with practice. So join me as I share tips, advice, and practices on how to strengthen your interoceptive awareness. 

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello everyone, welcome to another episode. Today I really want to talk about something important that starts with a personal story. The story is from when Rob and I were camping a couple of weeks ago and has to do with how I felt about shopping for and trying on clothes in my favorite clothing store in Canmore. I love a certain brand and I know they fit well but I decided to try on a new brand in my size and it did not flatter at all. It was constricting and felt terrible. And I had already felt out of place walking in because I’d come straight off a hike with Rob and was dusty and in hiking gear. All of this culminated in this thought popping into my head: “I feel fat.” And I want to talk about what we actually mean when we think that. I want to break that down and take away its power today.    

The truth is that when we say we “feel fat” we are actually talking about something else. Because fat is not a feeling. It’s not an emotion. But the word ‘fat’ does carry a lot of weight in our thin-obsessed society and it is a loaded term. We use it to express feelings of inadequacy or discomfort or, in my case, even failure. So I want us to think about what we’re really saying when we say “I feel fat”. When I said that, I projected all my feelings onto my body. I projected society’s idea of fatness as equal to being undesirable or worthless onto my own body. But my body was not the problem. My emotions were what I needed to deal with. Let me say that directly to each of you. Just because you feel discomfort in your body doesn’t mean your body is the problem. I want to help you shift your focus away from blaming your body and help you build a more compassionate relationship with it. I want to help reframe what we mean when we say “I feel fat”. Join me in this episode as I unpack what’s really behind that sentence and how we can remove our bodies as the target of our emotions.

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello again, friends! I want to confess something to you all today. I’m not perfect. The past week was terrible for my intuitive eating practice, I just haven’t been doing it, and I’m only just getting back on track now. That’s what I want to confess. What I want to share is my experience with why I fell out of my practice this week and how intuitive eating is a journey and not a destination. I want you to understand what is important to know about yourself and intuitive eating before you start and I believe sharing my struggles with you will be helpful for all of us. So here it is, how the week from hell made me fall out of intuitive eating.   

The week started with my husband Rob and I coming home from camping. When we’re camping, I’m really good at intuitive eating. We have to plan what to bring, I’m not stressed, I can listen to my body, it’s a beautiful thing. But we came home hungry to an empty kitchen. Not a big deal. We ordered pizza. And that’s allowed! Waking up for an early day the next morning is when things got tricky, though. We still didn’t have groceries, I didn’t have breakfast, I had a bunch of meetings and I was driving on an empty stomach. I ended up eating drive-thru and because Rob had a similarly busy day, we ordered pizza for dinner again. That’s how the week went. I couldn’t get on top of my schedule and I was so busy I was far too hungry to listen to my body and instead just grabbed whatever food I could to stop the hunger. This is what’s important to know about intuitive eating: you can’t do it when you feel starving. A hungry brain won’t let your body make intuitively good choices. And sometimes it’s just like that. It’s a journey, not a destination. So join me in this episode as I share what I know we’ve all experienced at some point and I encourage you to keep up with your own intuitive eating just like I’m doing.

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello there, friends. Welcome back to Thrive Beyond Size. As you probably guessed from the title, today I want to talk about Simone Biles, the world’s best and most decorated gymnast, who recently blew us away with her grace and incomparable physical skill in Paris. She won 3 gold and 1 silver medal in the Paris Olympics. But I think back on her bowing out of the Tokyo Olympics four years earlier as a different kind of shining example of courage and skill. She stepped down to take care of her mental health. She knew her body was ready but there was a disconnect in her mind and she acknowledged how important it was to be mentally ready too, to have mind and body work in harmony. That was a beautiful decision. But it must have been challenging for her to do. And that’s what I want to talk about, doing the difficult thing that’s best for us.   

When I look at my own life struggle with diet culture and weight loss, and I hear the stories I’m privileged to have other women share with me, I often realize that the reason we aren’t taking charge of our health is because it’s too big of a change right now. It’s frightening. It’s hard. And what I now teach people to do is what I had to do myself. That is take a look at where we’ve been for years and years, the way we’ve treated and showed up for our bodies, and make that incredibly challenging decision, much like Simone Biles, to step down from all of that and embrace a new way of thinking. I talk about how part of the fear is the sunk cost fallacy, that we’ve already invested so much of our time into dieting that we don’t want it to be a waste, and part of it is that we’re terrified of giving our bodies what they actually need which is the idea behind intuitive eating. In order to change direction and take care of ourselves mind and body, we need to first make that big bold courageous decision to step away from dieting and embrace something different. Something healthier. So join me because we’re going to talk about exactly that in today’s episode. I’m going to share my journey and we’re going to explore what we can learn from Simone Biles. 

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Resources mentioned in this episode:

• CNN: Simone Biles reflects on Tokyo Olympics in ‘Rising’
• Episode 137: Talking About Your Body in Relationships with Rob Issa

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About Dr. Michelle Tubman:

Dr. Michelle Tubman is certified by the American Board of Obesity Medicine, which means she understands exactly what's happening in your body when you diet. Although she does not provide any medical advice in her coaching programs, this knowledge gives her an edge over most coaches.

She also holds Level 1 and Level 2 Precision Nutrition coaching certifications which make her skilled at coaching nutrition, dietary change, and habit change in general. Realizing that emotional eating and bingeing are complicated for most of us, she also did training in mind-body and intuitive eating. Peace around food is possible.

As the old adage goes, how we do one thing is how we do everything. It's very true that how we do food is often how we do life too. And if we've been struggling with food and body image, there's a good chance that other domains of our lives are contributing - relationships, family, work, money, sexuality, stress. Michelle knows that coaching us through all of this is what leads to our true transformation - from the inside out.

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Learn more about Dr. Michelle Tubman and Wayza Health:

• Website: www.wayzahealth.com
• Follow me on Facebook and Instagram
• Email Michelle: [email protected]

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.